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March 2011

Contents:



Seeking Volunteers
Web Volunteers Needed

To communicate more effectively with our members, the Washington Statistical Society is developing a new web site. The design, major functions, and main pages of the new site will be created by our vendor using a content management system. We are looking for volunteers to help with other tasks. These include:

1. Use the new content management system to create additional web pages.

2. Help convert email functions to operate with Constant Contact®.

No special skills are needed — just good attention to detail and familiarity with web browsers. If you would like to help, or if you would like more information, please write to Phil Kalina at wssvolunteer@philkalina.com.

Thank you.

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Seeking Volunteers
Poster Competition Judges

The Quantitative Literacy Chair needs 6 volunteers to help with judging for the poster competition. No experience is required. The judges will be reviewing students' (grades K-12) posters to determine which should be passed on to the national (ASA) competition. The judging normally occurs the last Saturday in April, but there may be room for flexibility if a different Saturday or a weekday late afternoon/evening timeslot would work better for most of the volunteers. This project would entail no more than about a 3-hour commitment. Refreshments will be provided. The location is to be determined (possibly Westat). If interested, please contact MichaelAVCostello@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Michael Costello
WSS Board of Directors

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Classes and Workshops
Forthcoming Info-Metrics Workshops and Summer Classes:
Announcements and Call for Papers

Info-Metrics Institute
American University, Washington, DC
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/econometrics.cfm

Registration and additional information about activities, reports, etc., see:
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/index.cfm

Workshops:
Spring 2011 Info-Metrics Across the Sciences, May 2, 2011, Washington DC, USA
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/workshop/index.cfm
Fall 2011 (October) Philosophy of Information, October 3, 2011, Washington DC, USA
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/workshop/workshop-2011-fall.cfm
Fall 2011 (November) Information Theory and Shrinkage Estimation, November 12, 2011, Washington DC, USA
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/workshop/workshop-2011-november.cfm
Spring 2012 (March) Information and Econometrics of Networks, March 30-31, 2012, Washington DC, USA
http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/info-metrics/workshop/workshop-2012-spring.cfm
Summer Program:
May 9-13, 2011 Info-Metrics: Theory and Practice
Instructor: Amos Golan (American U)
May 23-27, 2011 Spatial Econometrics: Theory and Practice
Instructor: Ingmar Prucha, U. of Maryland College Park
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Classes and Workshops
Five-Week Online SAS Training in Summer

The Department of Statistics, George Mason University will be offering a 5-week introductory course in SAS programming in Summer 2011 from 6/6/011 to 7/10/2011. This is a perfect opportunity to become facile with one of technology's leading software packages to perform data management and data analysis using modern statistical methodology, from the comfort of home or office.

Thecourse is offered completely online and does not require coming to campus. The course is taught by Dr. Linda Davis, Associate Professor of Statistics. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from Rutgers University and is an expert in data analysis and applied statistical methods.

There are two mechanisms to register for the training course:

STAT 501: a one credit graduate course; registration is through GMU Summer Programs registration; non-GMU students must apply as a non-degree student by April 22, 2011.

Continuing Education: not for credit, fee $500. Register at http://www.ocpe.gmu.edu/programs/seminars/sas_programming.php

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Classes and Workshops
Summer Statistics Courses at George Mason University

STAT 250 — Introductory Statistics I
STAT 250 (Distance Education) — Introductory Statistics I
STAT 344 — Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists I
STAT 350 — Introductory Statistics II
STAT 501 (Distance Education) — SAS Language and Basic Procedures
STAT 789 — Bootstrapping Methods

Contact:
William F. Rosenberger, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman
George Mason University, Department of Statistics, Volgenau School of Engineering
4400 University Drive, MS 4A7
Fairfax, VA22030-4444
Phone:703-993-3645
FAX:703-993-1700
wrosenbe@gmu.edu

Webpages:
http://statistics.gmu.edu
http://summer.gmu.edu

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Student Column

Bradley Patterson student representative from the Department of Statistics at George Mason University has written about the Department. We will hear more from the GMU students' activities later.

"For this initial article from students in the Department of Statistics at George Mason University, I am glad to report on several topics. To start, the number of graduate students is as large as ever. We now have 70 Masters and 20 PhD students. As new students are enrolling, we also are wishing our graduates bright futures. This past December we celebrated the doctoral defense of our classmate, Victoria Plamadeala, whose dissertation is titled "Randomization- Based Inference for Sequential Clinical Trials Using Biased Coin Randomization." We hope to congratulate two more classmates, Ting Dong and Liang Li, whom we anticipate will defend their dissertations this spring.

In the coming year we look forward to welcoming a new faculty member, Dr. Hughes-Oliver, from North Carolina State University, where she has been a faculty member for nearly two decades. Her research interests include genomics, drug discovery, chemometrics, data mining, and engineering. Our department is currently considering candidates for another faculty position to begin next fall as well.

We also extend an invitation to everyone to attend our department's weekly statistics seminars, typically held at 1:00 PM on Fridays. Statisticians from around the world come to present their research. Please visit our web site, statistics.gmu.edu, to find details on upcoming seminars.

Our next column will feature more updates on students' research activities, both within the department and for summer internships.

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Note From The WSS NEWS Editor

Items for publication in the April 2011 issue of the WSS NEWS will be accepted until the last day of the preceding month.

Email items to Colleen S. Choi at wss.editor@gmail.com.

Please submit all materials in MS WORD or plain text.

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Click here to see the WSS Board Listing (pdf)
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